Non Relatives

williamwbuhidar1

I have read most of the comments in this discussion board and would appreciate any clarification on the following, please.

I have birth and death dates on a family friend who passed away in 1985. To our knowledge he had no living relatives and by searching through records no additional information has come to light. I would like to create a record on FamilySearch that would include future potential ordinances for this person once the 110 year rule has been cleared.

Am I allowed to create such a record by using the Add Unconnected Person tab?

Any insight will be appreciated. Thank you!

Gordon Collett

You can create records for anyone you want. You can edit records for anyone you want.

All that is expected is that you do decent research, document and source your information, and do good work.

For example, please do no just toss on what you think you friend's name is, a birth year and a death year, and call it good. If you are going to enter him, find records for him and his extended family, add his complete name, add full birth and death information, add his parents, siblings, and grandparents, find census and other sources to document his life.

If you just enter him with minimal information, he may never be found by any user of Family Tree again and just float there as an isolated entry. If you do full research, there is a good chance his extended family - there are sure to be second or third cousins somewhere - will be presented with the family cluster you create and be able to link him correctly to the main section of Family Tree.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

And someone - one of those 2nd or 3rd or 1/2 4th cousins - may have already entered his information, so take a look before creating new profiles for him and his family. If nothing else, one of the census projects has probably captured him and his parents in the censuses.